27 - 07- 2006

Well, I am in Irkutsk right now. Updating the internet. I will leave for Ulan-Ude after this. But I will not reach the city before tomorrow. I am travelling alone again. Doug has some problems with his clutch and wants to spend some time around Irkutsk and Lake Baikal. I keep going because I have to get to Vladivostok in time. It is no race, but I just want to keep moving. Doug will take the train anyway from Chita to Khabarovsk. This stretch of road is not paved yet. It will be a real test for me and my Ural, but I want to do it. Once in Vladivastok I will attend the bike show. After that I want to see Nadia as soon as possible. Probably I will take the train. We will see about this later.

Anyway, I am still alive and well. My Ural is doing great. The wheather is not so nice today, but that will not spoil the fun.

Bye for now.

22-23-24-25-26 - 07 - 2006

Krasnoyarsk - Kansk - Alzamay- Tuygun - Irkutsk

I am running a little behind on my writings. All the books I have with me remain untouched. There is not as much free time as I thought while on the road. After a day of riding you enjoy each moment you have to relax. Just doing nothing is actually good enough and recharges my batteries. There is no boring moment that makes you grab a book to kill some time. I am even neglecting my diary.

22-07-2006
We got up too early. After a quick breakfast we went to collect our bikes. It's Nadia's birthday today. Nikolai escorted us to the city limits. We start our journey to Irkutsk. The info we have received reports some very bad road ahead. A couple of bad stretches, each about 30km. As we are very tired from the last couple of days in Krasnoyarsk we stop for the day in Kansk. We have not done a lot of kms but we just want to relax and do nothing. No tours of the city, no trips to the dam, no visits to other bikers ... just do nothing. Maybe it was the overdose of wodka the last couple of days, maybe it was me missing Nadia, maybe I ate something that wasn't kosher, but I felt sick. I was falling asleep on the bike. I had to get some rest. And that is what we did.

23-07-2006
We leave Kansk rested and I feel much better. The bad spots are now ahead of us. Although we meet a lot japanese car convoys going in the other direction, the road is very bad. Nevertheless, trucks, busses and all sorts of cars make it through. Doug has no rear shock and his front shock broke down today thanks to a particularly bad spot. The road is dusty. I can taste the sand and we stop frequently to rest. It is hard on Doug's Indian. I could probably go a bit faster, but not really fast. It is a dirt road with a lot of potholes that makes my suspension bottom out. The drive shaft to the side car hits the guard and sidecar boat a couple of times. Everything is covered in dust. Luckily there is no rain as it would be even more difficult to drive this road if it were muddy and the deep potholes filled with water. We stop at a truckstop in Alzamai. This is a true oasis in the middle of nowhere. A nice hotel, a great cafe, a shop, guarded parking. We meet a German heading west from Mongolia. He was unable to exchange money and we happily help him out with what he needs to get to the next city. He doesn't want to stay at the hotel, but we talk a bit before he heads off. He told us there are two more bad spots up ahead. We go to sleep hoping we will clear this bad bad bad bad road tomorrow.
All the bad roads I had up to now seem to pale in comparison. It is taking its toll on moral, but luckilly we have eachother to complain to and after a couple of jokes about the situation and region we are good to go.

24-07-2006
I admire Doug for going through with this. No suspension in the back, only springs in the front, his clutch is not performing as it should, ... On these bad roads a sidecar is nice, but a dualsports bike would be better. Doug's Indian looks a bit out of place here.
There is not a lot more to say about the day. It was just crap. I would love to use some more strong words to describe the situation, but that is not helping anybody.
We clear the really bad spots and make it to regular Russian roads by the evening. We stop in Kuytun. Only one hotel but the price is a bit too high so we get ready to start the bikes to look for a camping spot. The lady from the hotel comes outside and lets us make a counter offer for the room. We settle on 300 rubles a person. Good price for a clean room. The guests from across the hall invite us to share the banya they booked and we talk about our travels.
There is still no Beeline coverage. Doug has MTS and he gets a good signal. I need to get a different phone company too. It has been since Krasnoyarsk since I last sent news to Nadia. I call her on Doug's telephone and she was worried about us as she had not received any news. She was really happy to hear me. I was really happy to hear her. If only I was in Kemerovo...

25-07-2006
We leave the hotel around noon. We slept in, enjoyed breakfast and didn't really feel like driving in the rain. We are standing outside the hotel next to the main road through town, getting ready to go. We have seen a lot of bizar things on Russian roads, but this was slightly different. There is a truck parked partly on the road, partly on the shoulder. A lada comes from the opposite direction. Next to the hotel there is a tire changing place with a police car in front of it. A little boy of about 7 or 8 runs across the road from behind the truck. The lada slams his brakes but a collision is inevitable. The road is wet and the car slides forward of the road onto the shoulder in front of a store. The little boy is underneath the car. I run to the scene, but the passenger from the car has already dragged the boy from underneath the car. I have a quick look at the boy, but besides him crying, there is apparently nothing wrong. No blood, no broken bones. They rush the boy of to somewhere (I hope a doctor or a hospital) in the car that hit him. The police were probably to busy with changing there tires. They never even moved. I guess they just take bribes, harass people and walk around with machine guns. Assholes. "To serve and protect" is not their moto here in Russia. Anyway, I was a bit shaken by what had happened. Thank God the boy was alright. This could have been a deadly incident. I have an even more disrespect for uniforms now.
Doug get's a new battery as the one he has now broke down. The road to Irkutsk is good, but 50km before Irkutsk, Doug's clutch will not go any further. We stop and start calling our contacts in Krasnojarsk and Irkutsk. A local biker, Sasha, shows up and we make it to his garage. Doug does not want to be stuck here and arranges for someone from Irkutsk to pick him and the bike up. It is late in the night when Alexey (Ljosha) arrives from Irkutsk. Sasha has already showed us his entire photo collection. The Toyota LandCruiser is to be the towtruck. He will not actually tow, we will put the bike in the back. This is Russia. I follow Alexey and Doug to Irkutsk where we spend the night at Alexey's. It is a bit crowdy as the appartment is small, but it works.

26-07-2006
We sleep in. My Ural's lights went out yesterday evening in Irkutsk. While Doug takes his machine appart, I have time to check my problem out. It ends up to be a bad connection at the connectors behind the headlight. I redo a couple of wires and everything works again. I spend the night in a hotel as I need to register again. It has been too long without a stamp and the appartment was a bit overcrowded too. I get some laundry done.

21-07-2006

Krasnojarsk 21-07-2006

Instead of Nadia, I had to share a bed with Doug. If you just want to sleep I guess it’s alright. Doug is actually a great guy. He enjoys having me around: finally somebody that will understand his American jokes. I enjoy having him around. It is not easy to always talk to people that barely understand you and whom you yourself don’t understand. Being able to communicate perfectly in English is nice while on the road. We are of mutual benefit to each other and I think we get along fine.

Although the day is already well underway, it is much too early for me to get up. I also seem to have a mild headache and my stomach isn’t its normal self. You might call it a hangover I guess. News travels fast and Nikolai finds out I am crazy about Nadia from Kemerovo. Nikolai was also at the Tomsk Bike Show and he has a nice picture of her. He prints the picture on his brand new fancy photo-printer-thingy and gives it to me as a present. This is nice. I will put this picture on top of my tankbag.

Nikolai takes us to Michael’s garage. Michael has a very nice collection of antique motorcycles. He has two German sidecar rigs that he himself restored. The motorcycles look like new. Whatever was rusted through beyond repair, he makes himself. For one of the motorcycles, he copied the entire frame. It is truly a wonderful collection. He is rightfully proud.

Michael joins us and we go to see the Yenisey dam. A huge 100 meter high dam. Very impressive. The water level is high and thus 5 overflow gates are open. This produces an incredible wall of water to tumble over the dam. After the dam we go for lunch, courtesy of Nikolai. Thank you Nikolai. Then we hear of two Germans and one Latvian biker coming into Krasnojarsk. We go to meet them at the home of another biker. We all have a banya and finish with dinner. Although I still don’t feel my normal self, I have a couple of vodka’s. The Russians just do not take no for an answer. Once again I get to sleep later than I would have liked. It will be early in the morning.

20-07-2006

Kemerovo – Krasnojarsk 20-07-2006

After we are all awake we have the small pancakes and some tea for breakfast. It is really good. We load up our gear and get ready to leave. So much for the easy part. Although it hasn’t been that long since I met Nadia, it is hard for me to leave her. If it weren’t for Doug, I probably would not have been able to bring myself to leaving her. But then again, if it weren’t for Doug I probably would not have been to the Tomsk bike show and I would not have met Nadia.

I do not have a lot of experience with relationships, just a couple of broken hearts. I have not been in any relationship for 6 or 7 years. It’s a shame, but that’s just how the cookie crumbles. I love to give love and be loved. I probably haven’t met the right girl or I’m old fashioned and my idea of love is not of this day and age. What do I know anyway. I am very shy when it comes to girls. I may talk the talk when I am sitting in a bar with my friends, but I certainly do not walk the walk. Of course Nadia took the first step. It went way further then I would normally go with a girl I just met. The fact that I had more alcohol in my bloodstream than average is not to blame; I have kept my cool before under much worse conditions. I don’t know what happened. She managed to accomplish what I thought was impossible. She just seduced me I guess. In any case she liked me and I liked her. In the morning she still liked me and I still liked her. A couple of days later she still liked me and I still liked her. When the time came to say goodbye, I had fallen in love with her. For the short time that I have been around her, there is nothing about her that I dislike. She is a very interesting person and she has more qualities than meet the eye. And knowing she likes me is incredible and it gives me a feeling that I haven’t felt for far too long. She couldn’t believe that I had already fallen in love with her. Understandable, but I could not but tell her my feelings. I am very honest and serious about that kind of stuff. That is also why I told her that I don’t fool around. I hate it when people play with feelings and a broken heart is the worst thing that can happen to a person. I told her to send me an SMS later on in the day to let me know if she was just playing with me. Just to kill any suspense, I did get a message: she wrote me that she missed me and that she wants me to send her messages and call her once in a while.

With Nadia on my buddy seat, we drove to the edge of town. Only after a long kiss did she catch the bus. We waved and tossed kisses to each other until the bus was out of sight.

She’s not just using me as a toy. I will visit her on the way back and we will see what happens. Maybe Nadia is the "one". She is actually the perfect girl. I am crazy about here. Here English is actually much better than I first thought and she learns quickly. She’s an intelligent girl. She teaches me some more Russian. Communication is not a problem. Oh I can’t wait to hold her in my arms again. Nadia, I love you.

Needless to say, I did not get a lot of the scenery on the way from Kemerovo to Krasnojarsk: I could not stop thinking about Nadia. We stopped at a gastinitsa in Atchinsk, but the prices were a bit high. We got in contact with the people from Krasnojarsk and they told us to just keep on driving to get to Krasnojarsk. By the time we got there a welcoming committee was awaiting us. We were escorted to a garage were we parked our motorcycles. Then Nikolai took us to his lovely apartment in Sosnovoborsk, a good 40 km from Krasnojarsk. He must be doing good, since his home was unlike anything I have ever seen in Russia. New interior, furniture, kitchen and bathroom. This is there winter home, so they normally don’t stay here around this time of year, and they go to Thailand for a couple of weeks during the winter too. Not the average situation for the majority of the Russians. Nikolai is a great guy and we talk, laugh and drink until well in the night.

19-07-2006

Kemerovo 19-07-2006

We stay the apartment until sometime in the afternoon. No worries. Doug lets me know he will be in Kemerovo later today. When we finally get outside, Nadia starts her Ural to park it in her garage a couple of blocks away. I get to sit in the sidecar. Her garage is a short walk to her parents place so we drop in to say hi. Her father is very nice has just finished making soup. He is apparently really good at that. Off course the table is quickly set for a late lunch. The soup is great. We have a couple of wodka’s too. Nadia’s daughter is also there. She is cute, smart and very polite. Most of the time Antanina sleeps at her grandparent’s place as Nadia has to work. Nadia loves her daughter very much.

Doug arrives in Kemerovo. We call for a taxi and go to his location. Nadia offers him to stay at her apartment too as there is an empty bed available in which her daughter sometimes sleeps. Doug prefers not to bother us with his presence, but as there is apparently no cheap hotel in Kemerovo, he does take up the offer. While he takes a shower and shaves, Nadia and I go for a walk in Kemerovo. We meet up with 2 of her friends and have a beer. We invited Doug, but he is feeling tired and wants to get some sleep. When we come home he is already sleeping. It is very warm that night and actually getting sleep is not easy. Before Nadia goes to bed she bakes some small round cookies that actually are more like pancakes. These will be our breakfast in the morning. Nadia told me the name of the food, but I have already forgotten it. Dear Nadia, forgive me, I should have noted it somewhere. In any case they were delicious.

18-07-2006

Tomsk – Kemerovo 18-07-2006

Doug’s repairs are taking a bit longer than he would have liked. He is off to the garage to work on his bike and I go to an internet café. After that he takes me sight seeing through Tomsk. We visit the local biker café and some sight of Tomsk. I snap a lot of pictures. Sergey is very proud to show his city. Actually, all Russians I have met are very proud of their city and country. Doug still isn’t finished by late afternoon and gives me the OK to take of to Kemerovo, he will join me there as soon as he can. I am eager to get out of Tomsk. I want to ride my motorcycle and see Nadia. After dinner the lady of the house gives me a haircut and I get escorted out of Tomsk by Sergey. It is around 21:00. It is still 210 km to Kemerovo and it will probably take me 3 to 4 hours to get there, but I want to get out of Tomsk and see Nadia. I arrive in Kemerovo around 01:00 at night. I am not at the designated meeting point because in the dark I took the wrong road to Kemerovo. Nadia is worried sick about me as I did not stop to check my phone until then. I have no clue as to where in Kemerovo I am and ask the guard from a factory for directions. I contact Nadia and she is heading towards my location. I run out of gas and stop near a taxi. I call Nadia and give the taxi guy the phone so he can explain where in Gods name I am. I use my jerry can to fill up my tank again and once this is done Nadia shows up with her Ural. She was a sight for sore eyes. She is glad to see me and I am glad to see her. I had no clue it was so late, but apparently Nadia’s boss gave her the day off tomorrow after he heard I was coming over for a visit. She wasn’t tired and she showed me the city before we head to her apartment. It was an interesting tour.

Her apartment is in one of those typical Soviet concrete blocs and is just one room with the tiny entrance hall also serving as a kitchen and next to it a small bathroom. The hot water is disconnected in this district for the next couple of weeks, but the cold shower is OK as it is rather warm. We talk, eat and drink until the sun comes up. It’s OK, we can sleep in tomorrow.

Nadia is short for Nadezhda. Nadia is 26 years old and has a 4 year old daughter called Antanina. Nadia lives on her own because she thought it was time to get out of her parents apartment. Nadia has an interesting job and is proud of what she does. Anyway, I like her a lot and she likes me too.

17-07-2006

Tomsk 17-07-2006

We are staying at the professor’s house. He is very friendly and I am sure he is an interesting man to talk to. Unfortunately, his German is not so good to go beyond basic communication.

We visited a parts market today. Small stalls sell anything from tools, paint and oil to frames, tires and car windshields. I was able to get 5 litres of oil for 400 Rubel. I also got 2 oil filters for 30 Rubel and an Uralshina knobby tire with tube for 800 Rubel.

Doug has a problem with his aluminium saddlebags and we needed to get some steel for reinforcing them. Doug would have been happy with scrap yard steel, but the professor had some new steel for him. The only problem is this steel was in Seversk. Until recently Seversk did not appear on any map. It is a forbidden city just northwest of Tomsk. The professor, whose name is Sergey by the way, has access to the city, but no visitors are allowed. We get out before the checkpoint that is heavily guarded by military personnel. Cameras are not allowed. We wait at the bus stop for Sergey to return. Seversk does some nuclear military space rocket stuff. I’m sure the CIA knows everything about it and most probably a Google search for Seversk will return much info. Nevertheless, everybody we talked to about Seversk and what they are doing there, refused to talk about it for fear of going to jail. It is top secret.

Although I still have not reached 20000 km I repack my bearings and change all the oil and put in a new filter.

Tomsk has two roads leading to Mariinsk. One is shorter but very bad, the other is longer but very good. The longer road also passes through Kemerovo. Thank you Doug for pointing this out. The decision was made to go via Kemerovo, so I could say hi to Nadia. I call her and arrangements are made.

More news after these messages

Hello everybody,

Just some interesting info.

Gino Grimbacher, the German I met in Tomsk, has his own site www.gg-restless.de
Doug Wothke, the American I have been riding with since Tomsk, also has his own website www.guzzidoug.net

Beeline is the telephone company where I currently have a cell phone number. Unforntunately I have not had any coverage since Krasnojarsk. Hence I got another telephone card from MTS. They have better coverage across Russia. This new number is +8 914 907 5948. I will probably use this number until I reach Krasnoyarsk again.

15-16 - 07 - 2006

Russian bike show in Tomsk

This is fun. A lot of bikers, bikes and tents. It reminds me of Rock Werchter. They have bands and events in the old parade square. I stayed at our camp the night before, only going to the event area to get food and drinks.

A lot of custom Urals and Dneprs here, even an old M72. The overall majority of the bikes are Japanese though. Some Urals with sidecar. I just lounge around my tent and try to recover from my mad night ride. I also have a closer look at my motorcycle in one of the abandoned hangars.

The sputtering problem is back in full force. I am sick of it. It finally dawns on me that the only reason for the spark to ground at the coil is because no spark is going to the spark plug. The cable must be faulty. The problem indeed goes away when I push the cable better into the socket. I have a look and indeed, the NGK spark plug cable is not connecting properly into the socket. I cut it back a little and it now looks that the problem is gone for good. We will see. With the help of Alexander a Russian biker on Ural I adjust the valve tappet clearance. We also have a look at the generator, because of a noise. Everything appears to be fine. Thanks for that Alexander.

Gino, Doug and me have a lot of fans here. Foreigners are scarce and we talk to a lot of people, shake a lot of hands, have our pictures taken with or without the bikes. I am almost getting tired of the attention. All are amazed to see a new Ural from Belgium that costs over 7000 euro in Germany. I have a hard time explaining that this is not an export model, but the new Ural that is the same in Russia, Europe and the USA, although pricing may vary. There are a lot of events going on all the time. The one that I liked the most was a Ural performing a burnout. You can only see this in Russia. At the end of the bike show there is an award ceremony for all the different contests that were going on during the weekend and we ask to go on stage to just say thanks to all the Russian bikers for their hospitality and help on the road. Our 15 minutes of fame.

I met Nadia at the festival. She is a member of the Legion of Siberia, a biker club. She owns and drives a black Ural with sidecar. She speaks a little English but conversation is difficult, nevertheless sparks just flew and we both speak that one universal language.

It was again very late before I fell asleep.

The next morning we say goodbye to Gino, he is also heading for Vladivostok, but moves a lot faster than us on his sporty BMW. Riding together is not an option; we hope to meet each other again in Irkutsk. After a refreshing swim in a nearby lake I say goodbye to Nadia. Maybe I will see her again on my way back. Earlier this morning I tried to talk her into coming to Irkutsk so we could spend a couple of more days together, but this is not sure yet. We will see. It would be great if she could make it. So Doug and I are now travelling together to Chita, where he will get on the train to Vladivostok and I drive on. We are staying with ‘the professor’, the president of the Legion of Siberia. He got the nickname because he is an academic and scientist. We communicate in German, but it is not always easy. He has a banya and we are invited to partake in this ritual. Man is it hot. You go inside this steaming hot small log construction and they beat you with a bundle of leafy branches. You go out a couple of times and finally you wash yourself. It does feel good afterwards. Drinking beer through the entire procedure is standard.

We have a nice dinner after that and talk a bit.

13-14 - 07 - 2006

Novosibirsk – Tomsk

I start on time and actually ride all day. Nothing much to say about that. It is turning into a race now. I want to catch up with Doug, but Russian roads and Russian motorcycles are not meant to be ridden all day long. It would actually be great to attend the bike meeting in Tomsk. Might be interesting. Anyway, by the end of the day I have done about 700 kilometers and the hotel that I stop at is full. It is midnight. I was hoping on getting a room to recharge my phone and myself. No such luck. This is really the middle of nowhere and after a few cups of coffee and a can of Red Bull I decide to just keep on driving. Tomsk is still 500 kilometers away and I really want to ride in there with Doug. It is a long night. Fog, cold, Russian roads and cars with no lights make night-time driving quite an ordeal. After I pass Novosibirsk I meet a couple of Russian bikers that are escorting a German. Gino is driving a BMW and has been all over the world. He is an interesting guy. While we stop at a kafe to get a drink Doug arrives. I apparently passed him earlier on just before Novosibirsk. He was camping along the road with Russian bikers. I remember seeing the camp but not his motorcycle. Normal, since he puts a cover over his motorcycle at night. Anyway, we’re all together now and we make our way into the bike meeting compound. It is an old army base abandoned a long time ago. We set up camp and our Russian friends immediately fence off our camp and gather enough wood to build a small banya. I had a great conversation with Gino and go to bed too late. Need it be said that I am absolutely exhausted? I hope not. I ache all over and feel like an old man. I am not going to ride at night again in Russia and racing to get to a place is crazy. I’m taking it easy from now on. I look forward to some relaxing at this bike show.

12 - 07 - 2006

Tyumen

It was late so I sleep in. I call Alexey around noon and he takes me to a garage where I can work on my bike. I change the oil and filter and burn my forehead slightly on the cylinder in doing so. Silly me.

During lunch I have a very nice conversation with Alexey and Nazareth. Alexey pays my lunch as a gift. Again I get an escort out of the city, Russian hospitality and generosity has no bounds. I contact Doug after getting some more gas. He is way ahead of me since he took of early in the morning. He is heading for a bike meeting in Tomsk. It is not really that far, so I decide to try to make it to the meeting too. The countryside is really vast here. A lot less trees, more like plains. Not all agricultural land as it is a bit marshy. I camp out in a field, but the mosquitoes must have seen me coming and quickly gang up on me. I put up the tent in a hurry and get inside, not to come out before morning.

11 - 07 - 2006

Irbit - Tyumen

In the morning, my laundry is still wet. The police come to my room and want to see my passport. They speak to fast and the terminology is to specific for me to make any sense of. I do not understand them. We go down to the lobby and everybody that passes is asked to help explain the situation to me. There is a problem with the registration, apparently. I assure them I will leave town and head for Tyumen today, since that appears to be what they want. The owner of the hotel joins the conversation and thinks that I have been bothered long enough and instructs me to have my breakfast and she sends the police packing. After breakfast I call the factory and they will send someone over to pick me up. I noticed the bar served Stella Artois and decide to indulge myself and buy a bottle. Mind you, half a litre since that is the smallest quantity of beer you can buy in Russia as far as I have seen.

My interpreter for the day shows up and although she wants to get going, I make her wait for me to finish my Belgian beer. It tasted great.

I follow the taxi, in which she arrived, to the factory and after parking my motorcycle we go inside. A typical Russian factory I guess. It was once much busier and nicer, but it still works. I meet Andrey, a manager of Ural. I think he oversees production. We watch some videos on the computer of the Ural in action. We talk about production numbers, history of the factory, future aspirations, and current situation. It was very interesting. Andrey gives me a tour of the factory. I loved every minute of it. It is good to see that the factory is still open for business and putting people to work. New machinery will gradually replace the old equipment. A good sign. I hope this means the future is prosperous. Sadly the final stage of the tour could not be completed. There were no assembled Urals, they had already been crated for shipping. I hope to see this awesome sight when I am on my way home. The factory also replaced my front tire and my air filter. I forgot that I needed an oil change, so I will have to get this done in Tyumen. I would like to thank the people at IMZ (Irbit Moto Zavod) for their help and hospitality.

I am escorted out of Irbit by the guy that serviced my Ural. I arrive in Tyumen in the evening and flag down a biker after driving around the city for a while. This is Alexey. He is a really nice guy and although his English is as good as my Russian, we communicate perfectly. He awards me a medal for ‘long travel’, I will wear it with pride. He gets on the phone and two more bikers show up. They take me to a cheap hotel to unload my gear and park my motorcycle. I hop on as a passenger on one of the bikes and they take me to Route 66 Kafe, the local biker hang out. There I met Doug, an American doing a tour around the world on a 1948 Indian Chief. I got his contact details because we are heading the same way. He thought it might be a good idea to drive together for a while. But we didn’t have time enough to say more than hello, because I am dragged away to be fed. Nazareth, biker and owner of the kafe, and Alexey take good care of me. Alexey and some other bikers show me around beautiful Tyumen. This city is really something else than what I have seen up to now. It is clean and tidy. Probably the petro-dollars have something to do with that. All the bikers are proud of their city. Rightly so. I get to bed very late.

10 - 07 - 2006

Ural mountains – Ekatarinburg – Irbit

I take my time to shower and have breakfast and go on my way. No stress. I am in Asia now. But you couldn’t tell that by any other means than the line on the map. As far as I can tell this is still Russia.

The Ural mountains gradually disappear behind me and I am already at the city limits of Ekatarinburg. I stop at a ‘kafe’ to get something to drink. A biker from Ekatarinburg starts a conversation. It is slow, but we communicate. He makes a couple of phone calls. The book I bought is paying off. It is a book containing ‘useful words and expressions’ as the cover so nicely states. It is however intended for use by Russian speakers. This allows the biker to look up the Russian word he is trying to convey. I am instructed to wait 30 minutes to half an hour. (well, that’s the way Stan Laurel would say it) Another biker shows up, he speaks a bit of English and he is to be my escort. He will guide me around the city to the main road to Irbit. Traffic is bad, but we make it OK. It is not easy for a solo rider to escort a combination. Normally solo bikes zing through traffic, but me and my Ural just have to sit and wait for the traffic to advance like cars and trucks. I can tell he would like to move faster, but he is patient and helpful and makes sure I am OK and that no cars break our ‘convoy’. Once on the road to Irbit, I thank him and we say goodbye. What a great country and what incredibly nice people.

A couple of kilometres further I finally snap and am fed up with this stalling, sputtering problem that still persists even after the loose connection I fixed. I put my brains to work and realize it has to be ignition related. I decide to re-set the electronic ignition. Not really solved. I clean the spark plugs. Not solved. New sparkplugs. Not solved. Hang on, my brain finally says, check the synchronisation. The engine quits once I remove the right sparkplug cable from the spark plug. Great. This could be it. I resync the carbs and finally get it right. Finally, because I haven’t really done this a lot and I find it a bit difficult to do it right. Explaining synchronisation will take me too long here, but this is required if you have more than one carburetor. I immediately notice the engine runs differently … much better actually.

One more thing though, but this is for my fellow club members from VMCUD. Before I started synchronizing I noticed that with the cover of the ignition removed there is a spark from the start of the sparkplug cable (left cylinder) to the ground pin next to it. Normally you short these two points to kill the ignition in the appropriate cylinder to check synchronisation. This spark means that there is no spark in the sparkplug connected to the cable. After the synchronisation this spark still occurred but only a couple of times. I have no clue as to why this spark should happen there. What could be the reason for that? I have no clue. But it makes sense: because of this spark, no spark in the sparkplug and no power from this cylinder. That is what caused the sputtering and stalling. Now I just need to know if this spark there is normal or if something is wrong and needs to be repaired.

Anyway, I arrive in Irbit a bit later than I was hoping and find a hotel. Irbit is a city that once was. There are a lot of nice old brick houses with beautiful plasterwork and beautiful old log houses, but you need a lot of imagination to see the beauty as neglect and time have taken their toll. The streets are dirty and have seen better days and I can’t help but feel a bit sorry. Irbit is the Mecca for the Ural rider. I was expecting something else. It was kind of a shock. Some reconstruction was underway, but it will take a lot more work to make the town interesting for visitors. Nevertheless, a brand new hotel has been constructed. I stayed there as it appeared to be the only one in town. It had a lot of rooms and seemed like it was finished the day before. Very luxurious. I have no clue however why it was built. I think I was the only guest. And beside the Ural factory I have no clue as to why Irbit would be interesting. I did a lot of laundry that evening and went to bed a bit late.

sorry

Photobucket seems to be down for maintenance. Will not be able to upload pictures at this time. A shame ... I have some nice ones.

bye

Irbit

I am in Irbit at the moment. I have visited the factory and museum. Just great. The town and factory have most certainly seen better days, but it works. Don't have a lot of time now, so I will keep it short and write some more later.
The engine sputtering and not performing as it should was due to bad carburator synchronisation. I should have checked this sooner. The loose electric connection was a separate problem. My Ural is running perfectly again.
Have some problems with the 'keystone cops'. They came to my hotel room and apparently there is an issue with my registration. Like in the good old 'Wild West' days, I have to leave town and get registered in Tyumen. Not necessary as far as I know, but they only speak Russian and we are just not seing eye to eye on this issue.
Some workers are checking my motorcycle and doing some maintenance: new front tire. They will also have a look at the front shocks since these crappy Bulgarian shocks I bought aren't holding out as long as they should. The springs are still OK I guess. We will see. I also would like an oil change to be done, but this might not be a possibility.

Gotta go now and post some more pictures.

Ural mountains

08/07/2006

The landscape is indeed very beautiful. Vast fields and forests. Now and again a small town adjacent to the road. Log houses are all over the place in Russia. The majority of them are old. Some standing crooked, some abandoned, some burned out. They just stay there until somebody wants to use them for firewood or something I guess. Cosy picturesque towns. Old people sitting on a bench in front of their home. People working in the field.

It is haying time, that’s for sure. I haven’t really seen enough livestock to eat all that hay though. Maybe they export it. Small time farmers use a scythe and wheelbarrow to gather hay. Every available spot is cut. It is a busy time. Motorcycle and sidecar is still a very common sight here. Around Izhevsk it was mostly Izh. After that mostly Urals. They are a utility object: for carrying 3 people to town or to the field, for moving items to the roadside to sell. Since entering Russia this has been a very common sight. People sell their extra food, but you also have bigger roadside markets where you can probably find everything from stuffed animals to chandeliers. Usually you can buy potatoes, other vegetables, fruit, berries and honey. People of all ages sell along the road and my guess is they sit there all day or until everything is sold. Sometimes they have stalls, shelves and a shelter for the rain, some sell in front of their home and sometimes the boot of a Lada will do for displaying the goods.

I spent the night in a field. More flies than mosquitoes and I prefer this. The flies just tickle you. It was a beautiful spot. Very quiet. Nice view. I played some Dutch music and I got a bit emotional. It was a combination of missing home, my friends and family, but at the same time the beauty of the countryside, nature and the evening. Don’t worry, this happens to me from time to time.

By the way, I am getting smarter. Instead of facing an army of insects that are out for my blood I now pack my sleeping bag and self-inflatable matras while still in the tent. Smart, hey! That just leaves me to pack my bags in the sidecar, pack up the tent and get the hell out of there. Most travellers will already know this I guess … it’s not rocket science. I’m new to this.

09/07/2006

The roads were OK I guess. A lot of bad spots, but really bad spots. Mostly the ‘reasonable’ type of road though. But I am seriously considering to classify this as ‘bad’ again. I’m sick of it. A couple of very long stretches of brand new highway. Perfect for riding. Then you can at least relax and see more of the countryside. Otherwise you need to watch the road constantly to avoid potholes or whatever the road has in store for you. How do you actually make a road this bad? Is it poor workmanship, poor quality of material, wear and tear of summer and winter or a combination of all of this? I have no clue how you do this. It’s really starting to get to me. There was this really really moonsurface-like piece of road. 5 to 10 km of something they call road, but what I call off-road. Traffic crawled over the road as any speed was too fast. Trucks swayed all over the road as they tried to miss the deepest craters, but they still bucked as they sank in the less deep holes. They are constructing a new highway to bypass this part, but it was not yet finished. As I said before, Russia is working hard to get rid of these bad roads. I reached the Ural mountains after Perm. They aren’t really high mountains like the Rockies. It’s more of a plateau with a hilly terrain on top. I was looking forward to taking some nice pictures of me crossing the European-Asian border, but no such luck. Either the spot is not really advertised or it was some silly Russian road sign that I couldn’t read. So hopefully more luck on my way back. The route I am following now is not the main road from west to east. Maybe they have a huge monument on that road which I will take coming back. The Ural mountains are nice. I am even getting used to Russian traffic. Overtaking vehicles in curves and on hills, crossing the full white line. It’s fun. Just keep your turn signal on while overtaking and everybody will make way if oncoming traffic pops up. I finally understand why the Russians do what they do in traffic: it is freedom. In Belgium we are super conditioned and kept in check by manned or unmanned cameras. No cameras in Russia and everybody goes full throttle until they see cops. I do stick to the maximum speed though. Militsiya and DPS are all over the place and usually in spots where you least expect it. Armed with speed guns and their ‘magic wand’. They always carry this ‘magic wand’ and just point it at the one that should stop. Funny guys. I got stopped at two checkpoints today. No problems though. I suddenly nor speak nor understand any Russian and the officer has to resort to sign language. They let me go quickly. They are all interested in the bike, but I still do not feel at ease around them to be friendly and tell them all about the motorcycle and the trip. Their loss.

About the bike

I almost forget the star here. If it weren’t for my sore back and shoulders, I would say the Ural is the ultimate touring bike. :-))))) No seriously. It just keeps going. And even on these roads. It squeaks now and again when you make it jolt a bit too hard, but he just loves this trip.

Mind you … I did have a problem in Moscow that I have neglected to mention. While being stuck in Moscow traffic the engine seemed to die when accelerating. The engine temperature was reaching 120 Celsius and I didn’t really worry too much about it. I thought maybe some dirt clogging the filters or fuel petcock. I checked these out after leaving Moscow, but found nothing and started thinking about dirty carbs. I didn’t really feel like dismantling and cleaning them and I had used a carburetor cleaner additive a couple of times since I was in Russia, just to prevent this problem.

Then the bizarre electrical problem popped up. For those that missed that: contact on; starter gets the engine going and after that all power disappears, all circuits dead. This was a faulty contact somewhere since it would go away if I fiddled around with the cables under the seat. All fuses were OK.

The electrical problem started to happen more often, sometimes when coming to a stop. I heard a clicking sound when messing around with the cables and thought maybe a bad relay. There is still one Russian relays in there, the other one has already been replaced with a Bosch. We are talking starter relays here. I quickly learned that this was not the problem since the relays just control the starter and the problem remained after disconnecting both relays.

At the same time I had the Moscow problem again. When accelerating the motorcycle from a complete stop the engine would sputter vigorously. This happened only when the engine was hot (normal operating temp) and the motorcycle had stood still for a while. It would go away after moving for a while. It finally hit me. Hot expands, cold contracts. A loose contact somewhere was the cause for all of this. I found the problem later that evening: a loose wire on the alternator. The wire had gotten loose from its clamp. I work some magic, with the help of a Russian truck driver that was interested, and the problem was solved. Well … I will see tomorrow.

Nizny Novgorod

Moscow: the sites

July 5^th

After updating my blog and pictures I went out to see Red Square. I took the metro. Nice big inviting stations and an efficient system. It was very busy and I guess I didn’t seem too much of a tourist since twice I was asked for directions by Russians. Anyway, Red Square was great. Just like in the books. Huge. Perfect for parades actually. It is for pedestrians only, so no picture of me and the bike there. Had I bumped into Putin, I would have asked for an exception on my part. But the new Russia is getting on the tourist bandwagon. Stalls selling all kinds of tourist gizmos and Lenin, Stalin, Marx and the last tsar look-alikes. The young soldiers standing guard at the eternal flame had a hard time with the sun almost toasting them. I went back to collect my bike and Ilya escorted me to the M7 heading for Nizny-Novgorod. I didn’t get too far from Moscow before the evening set in.

The highway from Moscow to Nizny-Novgorod is actually very good. A lot is being invested in this road. It is very busy. I had enough of traffic and crowds and just kept on driving till after Nizny-Novgorod. I set up camp near Chebaksary. I didn’t have enough time to find a good spot and camped too close to the road to get a good night’s sleep. Some members of VMCUD sent me SMS messages. I really appreciate the support. Thank you for that.

The roads after Nizny-Novgorod range from absolute disaster to what I by now call “acceptable”. The countryside has also changed rather suddenly to gentle rolling hills and the road has to adapt to the terrain. Sometimes the road will climb and descend up to 12%. I love this type of landscape. It is very beautiful. The road misses the towns and sort of runs between them. This is definitely better for the inhabitants since it has traffic day and night … I know. This region has more agriculture. Huge fields. It is a sight to see. I think this region might be a bit better off financially too. A lot of road construction and surveying is going on. The roads around Kazan are perfect and have two lanes. They are also in the process of installing a new pipeline for oil or gas. Maybe this might account for the extra spending money. Not so much trash here. The government is indeed addressing the problem. Billboard campaigns and cleaning crews keep the side of the highway neat and tidy. Russia so far is very beautiful. And although a lot of work still needs to be done, the country is putting a lot of effort into getting the infrastructure in shape.

A lot of crappy pieces of road still remain and I have come to hate the sign indicating them. My machine is holding up, but I am getting tired of this. Traffic doesn’t slow down at all. The trucks just keep coming and to avoid being run off the road I go a bit too fast over the bad spots.

I have a freaky electrical problem that manifests itself now and again since today. It is a loose contact somewhere near the battery under the seat. Contact; everything works; I start and right after that the machine dies; no status lights, no starter, no running lights, nothing. I just fiddle a bit under the seat and power is back. I haven’t researched it thoroughly yet.

Cell phone

Thanks to Oleg Lebedev and Maksim from Tver I now have a cell phone. It is a Russian number. You can reach me on +7 960 716 3005. Please keep my time zone in mind should you want to make a call from abroad.
Thank you Oleg and Maksim.

MOCKBA MOCKBA MOCKBA

I set off for Moscow and met Alexey and Ilya at the Grand shopping center in Himky. They work for Ural-Rus: the distributor of Ural in Russia. They offered me a motorcycle cover, Ural cap and T-shirt as a gift. We then set course to the warehouse to pick up some more goodies: an oil filter and the missing throttle cable. Courtesy of Ural Russia. Thank you. Ilya then took me to a parts shop since I also needed a spare inner tube. In my "naïve tourist"-mode I asked Ilya to escort me and my motorcycle to see the Kremlin and Red Square. Big mistake. Moscow traffic is horror. You hardly move forward. Not advisable for an air cooled combination. Eventually it is Ilya’s Honda that breaks down and I feel bad for asking him to do me this favour. We abandon his motorcycle and with him on the buddy seat we go to the Ural Russia offices in Moscow. I met Tatjana, the director. They also have a wireless network here that I can use. Ural Russia is very interested in my trip and want to link to my blogspot. How can I refuse? They even have contacts with a Russian motorcycle magazine that would be interested in my story. Since I will be on the road for 4 months, they could even to a series. It might even earn me some cash. That would be cool. Ural Russia is very helpful and I feel much more at ease now in case I need parts. They can ship all over Russia. I spend the night in a hotel: 2000 rubles. In Pskov I could stay for 300 rubles.

Anyway, today I will update the blogspot some more and see the sights of Moscow on foot. Later today I will leave Moscow and set course for Irbit, the place where the magic happens.

Tver - Solnichnogorsk

I have learned from www.horizonsunlimited.com that there is a great biker community in Tver. Along the road to Tver I spotted a couple of Russian bikers on the side of the road. They seemed to be having some problems with a bike so I turned around to see if I could be of some assistance. These guys were bikers from Tver. I was able to help them out with a towing rope. Yes, they were going to tow a broken down solo bike with another solo bike. I have never been witness to this before. But in Russia I tend to see a lot of things that are out of the ordinary. We made our way to Oleg’s garage. This is the HQ for the Tver bikers. Nemets spoke very good English and he sort of interpreted for the evening. My Ural had an oil change and new filter. I met a lot of people there and after the work, food was produced and we drank some vodka. We talked about the trip, about bikes and about Russia. It was a lot of fun. All were impressed with the new Ural and my plans. Oleg Lebedev is a great guy. He spoke no English (only "drink, drink") and I just a little Russian but we got along just fine. He gave me the oil as a gift. Also the leftover Vodka was for me: for those long Siberian roads. My Ural got some nice stickers. I spent the night at his place, but I don’t know where he slept as he left me alone in his flat.

The next day Oleg and Maksim picked me up and took me out to lunch. Along the way we visited Oleg Rogov. This man has built the longest motorcycle on the planet. It is an official World Record. Of course it is powered by an Ural engine. Oleg Rogov also rode from Tver to Vladivostok and back on a scooter. The scooter was also standing there. He must be an amazing man, but the language barrier was obstructing a decent conversation.

We went back to the garage as I want to get going. They couldn’t believe that I was travelling without a cell phone. This was an issue for them, so they bought me one. Can you believe that? They bought me a cell phone. Now that I have it I realize that it was indeed foolish of me to leave without one. It is so much easier to get in touch or be reached by other bikers. I am incredibly grateful to Oleg, Nemets, Maksim and the rest of the gang. I should have stayed a bit longer. Oleg contacts the Ural dealer in Moscow to tell them about my plans. I should call them once I reach Moscow, to see if they can meet me somewhere. I said my goodbyes to the Tver bikers and went of. Maksim escorted me to the edge of the city. He is a good guy.

On my way to Moscow I stopped in Solnichnogorsk to let the sun dry me a bit since I had had some rain along the way. I snap a couple of pictures and all of a sudden a man on a Ural combination (motorcycle with sidecar) spots me and turns around to meet me. This is Victor, about 50 years old, but a true Ural biker. No English, but he insists I follow him to visit his home and sleep there. He escorts me to a street full of garages. We meet his good friend who is 70. I cannot remember his name. Please forgive me. Victor’s son made himself a custom Ural, a very nice machine indeed. They give me a cup of tea and I use my Russian travellers dictionary to make some conversation. Nobody speaks any other language but Russian. We get along fine. My motorcycle is stored securely in a garage for the night and I am dragged to the grocery store. Victor and his good friend make me choose whatever I like. They also grab some vodka and beer. Not one ruble leaves my pocket and we go to the flat of Victor’s friend. It is here that I will spend the night. His son is in Ekatarinburg, serving in the army. We gather around the small kitchen table and the newly bought food is consumed. We have many toasts and although it is slow, we are able to communicate pretty well. They are all happy to see me. This is Russian hospitality. We have a lot of laughs and I show them the route of my trip. We talk about Belgium and family. It was amazing. Victor’s friend gets by on a 100 dollar pension and I drive around on a motorcycle that for him costs a fortune. It was an eye opener for me.

In the morning we have breakfast and I let Victor drive my motorcycle to the highway. He is ecstatic and grateful. I should be the one who is grateful. And believe me, I am. I have Victor’s address and phone number. I will send him a postcard once I reach Vladivostok and I hope to send him some more stuff once I am back in Belgium.

We have a saying in Belgium: he who gives what he has, is worthy to be alive. These people spent money on a complete stranger when they have barely enough to come by themselves. How do you return a favor like that?

Sankt-Peterburg

St-Peterburg

From Pskov I headed for St-Peterburg. I had some good roads, some bad roads and some really bad roads. The main road between Pskov and St-Peterburg and from St-Peterburg to Moscow is a very busy road. You can call it a highway, but not in the same sense as highways in Belgium, more like Canada. It will go through the middle of a town. There you should reduce your speed to 60, but this is rarely done unless somebody spots the DPS or militsia. I think the DPS is something like highway patrol. While the militsia is the general police. They will be hiding out somewhere with a speedgun and jump on the road to stop you if they catch you speeding.

I spent the night in a field just outside of Gatshina, a city close to St-Peterburg. The nights indeed are not completely dark here.

St-Peterburg is totally different from the Russia I have seen so far. This city is clean, has wide street, a lot of new developments are going on. The militsia even had brand new fancy Mercedes cars. This is probably all because of a booming tourism industry. And it was a welcome change. Traffic was great: I drove through the center of town with ease. It was not congested and drivers seem to stick more to the rules here. I dropped by the local Ural dealer only to find that he could not help me with any parts for the new Ural. He even checked out my bike as if he had never seen one before. After some more pictures of the city I headed for Moscow.

One more thing about the roads: there is a lot of construction going on. The old bumpy Russian highway might even soon be a thing of the past. You still have the occasional 15 km stretch of bad potholed asphalt, but I have driven on some new smooth surfaces too.

Not long after leaving the city of St-Peterburg traffic just came to a stop. Apparently a truck with trailer coming from the opposite direction smashed through the divider and blocked our path. This was a major traffic jam, several kilometres long as I was stuck in there for about 3 hours. You haven’t lived until you have been in a Russian traffic jam. A two lane highway is instantly converted into one with 3 lanes. An additional lane also forms on the shoulder and people will try to drive on any available surface. Total chaos. How the emergency services are supposed to come through here is a mystery. It was taking too long for some drivers and they started driving either forwards or backwards on the opposite side of the highway. Of course with their four-way flashers on … for safety. It was a sight to see. But everybody just took the entire event with ease, nobody lost his cool. Traffic wasn’t moving so you just wait and move forward whenever you can. People come out of their cars and start chatting or walk up and down the line of cars. I even spotted a Safmarine container. For those that do not know, Safmarine is the company I work for.

Traffic eventually started moving again. Since I lost some time here I stayed in a gastinitsa in Novgorod, not so far from St-Peterburg. The administrator spoke perfect English and could easily become the mother of my children. Russian women are beautiful. No internet café in Novgorod.